Mona Charen has a column up at Townhall.com declaring she is a “mushy moderate on immigration”.

I think she spells out some of the conflicting feelings I’ve had about immigration, legal or illegal.

It won’t surprise regular readers that I consider myself to be moderate to liberal on some social issues, and I am evolving on my strict position of immigration reform.

Let me quote Mona:

I’ve been quiet on this debate because I find myself in the unfamiliar position of moderate. I cannot rejoice with so many of my conservative friends over the defeat of immigration reform, yet neither would I have been happy to see the legislation passed in the form it was offered. I don’t think we have begun to deal properly with the immigration problem because I believe it implicates other questions, like those of education, welfare and national identity.

[...]

I have heard nothing to convince me that the illegal immigration problem is not a reflection of legal immigration quotas that are too low. We have a full employment economy and a poor neighbor to the south. Is it any shock that employers are loath to turn away willing workers or that impoverished people are streaming across the Rio Grande? Are these low-skilled workers? You bet. Do we need them? Arguably yes.

[...]

If I were writing the law all by myself, I’d increase the legal immigration levels, beef up border enforcement, establish a national ID card so that we could really know who is here, and reform welfare so that only those who truly want to work would be tempted to immigrate. I’d also reform education to convey the greatness of this nation (warts and all). So here I am, in the awkward middle.

When all is said and done we do have to face reality, and reality is we have an illegal immigration problem that hasn’t been fixed and doesn’t look as though it will be for at least a couple of more years.

Kids who are in high school will do the jobs Mona says the graduates won’t do, and I know for a fact our landscaper went to trade school to learn how to be a good landscaper.

I also know he hires all American help. Whether they graduated from high school or not I can’t tell you, but they are all adults.

Maybe we all need to cool down and think this problem through. There has to be a solution; we just need to find it.

Mark me down as against the bill as it was written, but willing to try for a bill that is fair for everyone and protects our country.

If that makes me a mushy moderate too, then so be it.